Sy Roth writes about hearing what matters.

Heard for the First Time
By Sy Roth

the others said I needed the hearing aids.
laughed when I chuckled at the wrong laugh lines.

this morning, I took them out,
listened instead to the emptiness of the vacant streets
as the bicycle took me round them.

brain processed the morning without the impediments.

heard the wind-lost lover puffing against my ears,
emancipation songs.

heard birds tittering at one another in the distance,
soft melodies of their soaring freedom.

heard my old knees creaking an accompaniment
to my squeaky bicycle seat.

heard this poem growing in the crevasses of my brain,
dancing a pas de deux among the fallen cherry blossom buds
joined in a konichiwa tune.

heard these pounding rhythms in my chest.
learned that aids only amplify.